75-year-old Colaba resident loses ₹11 crore in online share trading fraud
A 75-year-old Mumbai man lost ₹11 crore in an online share trading scam after being misled by cyber frauds on WhatsApp. Police are investigating
MUMBAI: A 75-year-old south Mumbai resident lost ₹11 crore in an online share trading fraud over the last three months. The complainant, a Colaba resident who used to work in the shipping industry, got duped by cyber frauds who got him to invest in what they claimed was share trading via a well-known brokerage firm. After showing him fake profits, they lured him to invest crores of rupees before the man realised he was being duped.
According to the man’s police complaint, he was added to a random WhatsApp group on August 19 where people were posting messages about how they had earned huge returns by investing in shares through a well-known brokerage firm. After a few days, one of the operators of the group sent him a message asking him if he was ready to invest in share trading. Influenced by the messages posted on the group, the complainant agreed.
The 75-year-old then provided his documents to the cyber fraud, who opened a trading account on an app that had the name of a well-known brokerage firm. The details of the account were shared via a screen shot on a separate WhatsApp group created for him.
The cyber fraud then instructed the man to invest in a newly launched initial public offering (IPO) and provided a different bank account to him for the purpose. When the complainant enquired as to why the company was receiving money in a different bank account, he was told it was for tax purposes.
The complainant then started investing and also got to see the profits made by him in his virtual account. He ended up investing a sum of ₹11.16 crore, mostly by blindly following the instructions of the cyber fraud, in 22 transactions. He could see a large sum of profits being credited to his trading account.
However, when the complainant contacted the operator saying he wanted to withdraw the money deposited in his trading account, he was told he would have to pay 20% of the credited amount as service charges. Finding this suspicious, the complainant contacted the Lower Parel office of the firm whose name was being used by the frauds and learnt that he had sent all the money to cyber frauds, said a police officer.
The complainant then approached the police. Based on his complaint, the cyber police registered a case against unknown persons. The police are now trying to identify the frauds using the mobile numbers and bank account details used in the crime.
In a similar case, a 36-year-old businessman from Colaba lost ₹68 lakh to cyber frauds. According to his police complaint, he was added to a WhatsApp group with 170 members on September 6, where a person who identified himself as Amit Kumar started chatting with him and asked him whether he was interested in investing in the share market.
The frauds then opened a trading account in his name through an app. He was then asked to invest money in the virtual trading account. The complainant initially invested ₹50,00 and earned a profit of 10% in no time. He eventually ended up losing ₹68 lakh to the frauds.
In another case, a resident of central Mumbai was duped of ₹88.50 lakh after a cyber fraud called him claiming to be a representative of his bank. The fraud told the complainant that his credit card had been used for certain purchases and an amount of ₹3.16 crore earned from child trafficking and money laundering had been deposited in his bank account.
The complainant told the police that the caller, who identified himself as Arun Singh, asked him to contact the Delhi crime branch. After he contacted the number given to him, the frauds sent him a fake arrest warrant. The complainant was thereafter coerced into paying ₹88.50 lakh through RTGS to various bank accounts in order to save him from legal trouble.